The bi-annual MTA fare hike is just becoming a part of every New Yorker’s life at this point, like your landlord not turning the heat on until January and that one roommate who won’t put some goddamn pants on. But in a brilliant bit of marketing savvy, the MTA forecasted doom-laden fare hikes of 7.5% in 2015 and 2017, only to say in a recent meeting that the fare hikes would only be 4%. Thanks, guys!
Runnin’ Scared reports that at an MTA board meeting on Wednesday, board members casually mentioned that fare hikes would top out at 4% in 2015 and 2017. We’re pretty sure this tactic of “awful promise then less awful action that looks so much better” is right out of the PUA playbook, but fortunately, we’ve never read The Mystery Method. Anyway, this means that the base fare for a MetroCard will be $2.60 in 2015 and $2.70 in 2017 if our back of the envelope math is correct.
According the Runnin’ Scared, the smaller fare hike will come not from the MTA’s sudden two billion dollar surplus, but from overhead reduction and at the expense of any wage increase for workers over those four years. Unlike the PUA thing, we’re very sure that turning workers against each other is something out of the oligarch’s playbook.
Related Articles
Brooklyn’s Wegmans will open October 27th, hiring now
Wegmans, the upstate New York-based grocery store will open its first Brooklyn location this fall.
Get groovy at the Greenpointers Flower Power Spring Market (Sun, April 7th)
The not-to-be-missed Greenpointers Flower Power Spring Market is this Sunday on the Brooklyn waterfront.
Apply for the NYC affordable housing lottery at these Brooklyn buildings
A number of new Brooklyn buildings currently have “affordable” units to apply for under the NYC housing lottery.
One Response to
Leave a Reply
This is inaccurate. It’s not coming “at the expense of any wage increase for workers over those four years”. Wages WILL go up, but the MTA will also be extracting productivity increases from those workers to achieve a “net zero” wage increase. Basically, they’re looking to slowly improve outdated union work rules.
Please, please do a tiny bit of research before misinforming people more than you already have when you write about the MTA.